Each week we round up travel startups that have recently received or announced funding. Please email the Senior Travel Tech Editor Sean O’Neill at so@skift.com when you have funding news.
This week, travel startups announced more than $ 212 million in funding.
>>TravelPerkThe Barcelona-based travel booking and administration firm has closed a $ 160 million financing round. That nearly doubles the previous rounds since its inception in 2015. Skift’s corporate travel editor Matt Parsons had the story: TravelPerk will advance even further into US territory with a $ 160 million funding boost.
>>guest, a maker of software for short-term rental managers, has raised $ 50 million in a Series D funding round. The Apax Digital Fund led the startup’s round, in which the AMI Opportunities Fund and others also participated.
The Tel Aviv-based startup has raised $ 110 million since participating in the Y Combinator startup accelerator. It is the best funded of its peer sets. See Skift’s story about funding hereand profile of the company and Here is the recent acquisition of MyVR.
>>StaymywayThe manufacturer of contactless technology for hotels has received an injection of around USD 1.45 million (EUR 1.2 million).
The Spanish company had a huge hit in February when French giant Accor hired it as a provider of mobile key technology for the brand. Staymyway expects to cover 50,000 rooms by 2021 and to expand to at least half of the 800,000 rooms in the Accor network worldwide over the next five years.
With StayMyWay technology, hotel guests get access to their rooms without having to stop at the reception. Guests take a photo of themselves and their passport or other ID with their smartphone.
The company uses technology to verify the guest’s identity and issue a key to a room. The technology is compatible with most of the locks used by hoteliers. Accommodation providers purchase a kit that updates the mobile key lock. The startup charges a monthly fee per room.
StayMyWay was launched in Murcia, Spain in 2014.
>>TripAbroodThe startup, which focuses on helping families book trips, has raised approximately $ 1.3 million (nearly £ 1 million) in seed capital from angel investors since it was founded in September 2020.
The British company was founded in 2019 by Alexa-Maria Rathbone Barker, former European head of analytics at Bloomberg, and Ketan Anand, former technical director at Lloyds Banking Group. His supporters include former C-suite executives from Barclays, American Express, Expedia and Hertz.
The startup’s family travel assistant, Skye, strives to efficiently guide users through the discovery and booking phases, through a logical process, and by pulling up relevant information, the company said.
>>Bojue photographyThe Xiamen Consumption Fund, part of China Resources, has received an undisclosed investment round. ChinaTravelNews reported.
Skift cheat sheet:
We define a startup as a company founded to test and build a repeatable and scalable business model. Few companies meet this definition. The rare ones that often attract venture capital. Your financing rounds come in waves.
Seed capital is money used to start a business that is often run by angel investors and friends or family.
Series A. Financing is usually provided by venture capitalists. The purpose of the round is to help the founders of a startup ensure that their product is something that customers really want to buy.
Series B. Funding is mostly about venture capital companies that help a company grow faster. These rounds of donations can be helpful in recruiting skilled workers and developing cost-effective marketing.
Series C. Funding is usually about helping a company expand, for example through acquisitions. In addition to VCs, hedge funds, investment banks and private equity firms often participate.
Series D., E and beyond These mostly mature companies and the round of funding can help a company prepare for an IPO or acquisition. A variety of types of private investors could participate.
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Photo Credit: A picture of a “legendary Shard Suite” against the backdrop of London from Europe’s tallest skyscraper, the Shard, in the Shangri-La Hotel in The Shard London. It is a first class luxury hotel for business travelers and luxury vacationers. Shangri-La Hotels
